Primrose Bakery app (Random House, £2.49)

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave.

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and smooth. Slowly add the egg yolks and beat well. Next, add the melted chocolate and beat again.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Measure the milk into a jug and stir in the vanilla extract. Alternatively add the flour and the milk to the main mixture, beating well.

In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks have formed. Then carefully fold this into the main batter.

Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin cases to two-thirds full. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 25 minutes, until raised and golden.

Once cool, ice with vanilla buttercream (recipe below) and decorate with shavings of chocolate.

Vanilla buttercream

115g butter60ml milk1 tsp vanilla extract500g icing sugar

Beat together the butter, milk and vanilla extract, and half the icing sugar.

Gradually add the remaining icing sugar and beat to a smooth buttercream.

Keep any unused icing in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days.

About this article

Black and white cupcakes recipe

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 05.30 EST on Wednesday 16 November 2011.
It was last modified at 11.12 EST on Thursday 13 November 2014.
It was first published at 05.27 EST on Wednesday 16 November 2011.